


lights

by Khismer



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, M/M, christmas shenanigans, gender neutral reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 00:44:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13135590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khismer/pseuds/Khismer
Summary: for niku, who requested either looking at christmas lights or decorating a christmas tree.seven fulfills a long-awaited dream.





	lights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kirachama (crytalstellar)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crytalstellar/gifts).



There are many things Seven seems to delight in when it comes to the outing you've planned for this evening -- the chance to spend some time alone together, the knowledge that looking at Christmas lights will just make him more excited that you will soon be celebrating your first Christmas together as a couple, the possibility that tonight will mark the beginning of a holiday tradition with you, and the reminder that you’ll be together long enough to _have_ traditions… he’s been in high spirits all day.

So maybe he goes a little… overboard in his enthusiasm, but you understand it. 

Most of it, anyway. Some parts remain baffling. Like the giftbox he'd handed you. 

“What is this?” you’d asked him after opening it to find a misshapen mitten. 

“A couples mitten!” he’d declared, beaming. “For holding hands!” 

“For…” You glanced down at the mitten and tentatively slipped your hand in it. Right, okay, you can see how this is meant to work out. Your hand goes here, and… you held it up to examine it and he slipped his hand into the other side, then hooked your thumb with his and grinned at you as he gave it it a little squeeze. 

It's… a bit conspicuous, but you _couldn't_ say no to that face. 

Which is how you end up wearing it that night as you roam through an ocean of lights. 

While the sheer number of lights and the intricacy with which they're all hung is incredible, the truly unbelievable thing is that this place wouldn't get a second look any other month of the year, but now… well, now you're just one of a hundred couples strolling through the neighborhood. 

It's not the only place to go for this sort of sightseeing, of course, but it's known to be one of the more impressively festive spots in the city; for whatever reason, the residents here have consistently set up impressive displays outside and around their houses, and so you’re here to marvel at the sights. 

And there is quite a lot to see. 

Houses with full sets of animatronics, eight merry reindeer raising and lowering their heads; houses with Christmas music piped out from small speakers where couples and families dance together merrily; houses with curtains left wide open to show off brilliantly-decorated trees, and others with their usual greenery so filled with lights that you can't see a single branch left untouched, from the tallest palm tree -- an interesting landscaping choice -- to the smallest bush, all lovingly strewn with blinking reds and greens and whites. 

One house has different sets of cardboard figures with cut out holes for the heads set all along the front yard, and Seven hands his phone to a bemused, grandmotherly woman with a small child hanging off her arm and drags you to pose with him so you can play at being elves. 

Another has a bubble-making machine that blows out bubbles like snow onto the street below, and you spend some time there, giggling and catching globs of it to smear onto each other's faces -- a task made more difficult by the refusal to take the shared mitten off, but no less fun. 

He points out his favorites and asks about yours, and along the way comes the occasional cry of, “Oh! Take a picture of that one, Saeran would like that one! Oh, that one too!” You're not sure there's any rhyme or reason to the ones he points out, just the hope that he can share some of the experience with his brother. 

(Saeran declined joining the two of you on the grounds of not getting burned out on the day before it even arrived; he’d much rather stay home and work his way through all the cookies you've been baking.) 

There are, of course, exceptions to the ostentatious tendencies of the neighborhood, houses with small single strings of lights around one window, and a handful of houses with none at all, but the night is bright with the glow of Christmas cheer. 

Seven laughs in delight with each new house you pass, and you dart from house to house until your noses are red and your fingers are numb. 

You nestle into his side as you begin the walk back to the car. You've stayed out so long, most of the crowd has dissipated, and you spend some time in companionable silence, walking slowly, reluctant to leave the magic of this place, this moment, behind. 

“You know…” he says after a while, stroking his thumb over yours in the shared mitten, “I never got a chance to do… _anything_ like this. I’d wondered, for a while, what it would be like, to spend time with someone you love like this… someone who loves you.” He laces his fingers with yours. “I didn't think it would ever happen, or… that I’d deserve it.”

You squeeze his hand tightly, and he shoots you a grateful smile. 

“But now…” and he laughs. “It's better than I’d imagined, better than anything I’d ever dreamed.” The curl of his fingers around yours is almost shy. “ _You’re_ better than anything I could have ever made up.” 

Your breath catches in your threat, and you feel so full of love you can hardly stand it. 

“We'll come here again next year,” you promise, the implication clear, “And next year, and the year after that, as long as you want to--” 

A laugh bubbles up from his throat, loud and joyful. He pulls you in towards him and wraps his arms around you and _spins_ , holding you tight, dropping kisses across your face anywhere he can reach until he slows. 

When you finally stop, he rests his forehead against yours. “Next year,” he agrees, sounding slightly breathless, next year.” 

And then you kiss him and everything is right. 

**Author's Note:**

> took requests on my tumblr for christmas prompts. tbh, i wrote this while drawing from winterhaven, a neighborhood in tucson that gets Very Festive. merry christmas!


End file.
